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Wisdom of the Crowd within enterprises: Practices and challenges Using the wisdom of the crowd in problem solving is proven to be very useful in theoretical and academic settings. The wisdom of crowds concept could also be a very useful tool for enterprises due to the fact that for many enterprises knowledge acquisition is the main problem. How the concept of the wisdom of crowds is used in enterprises and which real life challenges business managers encounter by using the concept is looked into by Hosseini et al. (2015). First, a general overview of the application and influences is provided. Second, the business influence of the four quality factors that ensure a good wisdom of crowds are discussed. These four quality factors are: diversity, independence, decentralization, and aggregation. The usage of the wisdom of crowds in an enterprise environment are represented by four branches (see Figure 2). First, the two branches (1,3) represent the “what” aspects of the concept by presenting what is influenced by using wisdom of crowds. Second, branch two represents the “when” aspect of the wisdom of crowds. Lastly, branch four describes the ‘’how” aspects of the wisdom of crowds by identifying the communication channels that can be used to structure wisdom of crowds. The contribution is that enterprises that are interested in using the wisdom of crowds concept have now a validated heuristic overview of the current applications and influences on what, how, and when wisdom of crowds can be used in problem solving. Figure 2: Mind map for the use of the wisdom of crowds (Hosseini, 2015). The usability of the wisdom of crowds depends on four quality factors. An increase in a quality factor of the wisdom of crowds influences other business factors. Therefore, the relationship between an increase in the quality factors and the enterprises factors is investigated. The first factor includes diversity, referring to the fact that each individual who participates in the wisdom of crowds should have an own opinion, without the classification of a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ opinion. This is influenced by four diversity aspects: gender, age, location and expertise. The second factor is independence, as each individual opinion should not be influenced by other opinions. The third factor is decentralization, implying that people should be able to specialize and have diverse skill sets. Lastly, aggregation is a quality factor, referring to the aggregation of private opinions into a collective decision. Accordingly, the article finalizes by identifying the new challenges that have come forward. These challenges are categorized according to the quality factors of wisdom of crowds. The first two challenges which were identified, concern the factor diversity. The article recognizes that it is still unclear how many of the four diversity aspects (gender, age, location, and expertise) might be needed to ensure the type of diversity that an enterprise is really looking forward to achieve. The second challenge which is recognized, is how to ensure that the answers obtained from the crowd are truly diverse. This independence challenge concerns the fact that group characteristics may lead to biases in logical thinking, and the immeasurability of the factor independence itself. The third challenge is linked to the factor decentralization, and includes the influence of cultural barriers in enterprises that can interfere with decentralized decision making. The third challenge concerns the unwillingness of managers to hand over their decision making power to the employees lower in the chain. As described by Hosseini (2015): “Reaching decentralisation in an enterprise needs courageous decisions on managers’ and policy makers’ sides” (p. 10). Lastly, a challenge is identified that belongs to the aggregation factor. This challenge involves is lack of an engineering approach that provides an appropriate aggregation method which suits the context and the problem at hand. Hosseini, M., Moore, J., Almaliki, M., Shahri, A., Phalp, K., & Ali, R. (2015). Wisdom of the crowd within enterprises: Practices and challenges. Computer Networks, 90, 121-132.